Post: c2e2 2015

Last weekend I had an incredible weekend at the c2e2 convention! There was a lot of happenings and events going on through the weekend and I wish I could've been a part of them all. We attended the pre-con party at Aw Yeah Comics which was super fun, from what I remember.

The show itself was fantastic. It was a busy three days and I had a lot of people taking commissions. That kept me busy all weekend! On Saturday night, they had a Drink N' Draw to benefit the Hero Initiative as well as an art auction for St. Jude's in which they raised around $11,000!

Sunday morning I led a workshop in the Family HQ entitled Shape our Drawings. It was a fantastic turn out and kids were really into the demonstration as well as participating in a fun shape game that we played towards the end.

Wonder Care Issue 2 made its con debut and by the end of Sunday, I had sold out! I also sold quite a few prints and Heart books which always pleases me. All in all it was a fantastic weekend and I was so happy that Tressa came to the show and stayed with us. If you see her at a con near you, pick up her new book, Motherless Creatures, it's great! I also want to give a big shout out to my table buddies and all around awesome bros, Miker & Foo, for grabbing dinner with us both nights and making it a fun three days. Also I sat next to Mark Waid who is one of the nicest guys I've ever met.

Thanks to the Aw Yeah Comics crew for the invites and a big awesome thanks to the Mighty Mike Negin for putting together an incredible Artist Alley! I look forward to the next year and building upon the amazing friendships I've made since this show's inception.

c2e2 2015

I will be at the C2E2 convention in McCormick Place from Friday, April 24 to Sunday, April 26. My artist alley table number is table V13 and I'll be alongside my good friends Mike Roll and Tressina Bowling.  I also be doing art drops all weekend and on Sunday (kid's day) I am hosting a drawing workshop in their Family Fun Zone.

Here's the info for that:

Shape Our Drawings with Justin Castaneda

Sun. April 26| 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM | Family HQ – N427bc

Artist Justin Castaneda will show you the importance of using 

shapes when drawing. You will be able to see what core shapes

make up some of your favorite heroes and villains. Also, we will tap

into our imaginations and create fun, dynamic drawings from the unique 

shapes we make up.

If you are in the area or plan on coming down to the show, stop by the table
and say hi! I'll be doing commissions all weekend. And I'll have copies of
Wonder Care Issues 1 AND 2 as well as some other comics I have worked on. 

Look forward to seeing you there.

- J

c2e2 2014!

I will be at the c2e2 Convention this weekend, here is my schedule:

Artist Alley Table: V15

SATURDAY -

Free sketches in Kid Zone @ 1pm
Artist Alley Stage @ 4pm

SUNDAY -

Drawing Workshop @ 1pm

Hope to see you this weekend, and I'll be bringing my #cardBOREDsketch box. Come get some!

#HEARTcards set three available at c2e2 this weekend!

The big Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (c2e2) is this weekend and I will be there with copies of HEART and now more #HEARTcards! If you know anyone who missed out on the Kickstarter Campaign tell them to come down to the c2e2 Artist Alley table L6A. I will be doing #cardBOREDsketches, selling prints, signing books, and drawing super awesome stuff!

I will be appearing on the Artist Alley Stage where you can watch me draw on a jumbo-tron. My scheduled time is Sunday (4/28) 1:00pm.

Here is the new set of HEARTcards that will be debuting at this weekend's convention:

The Breakfast Club
Scott Pilgrim
Superman

SEE YOU AT THE SHOW!

c2e2 2013

The big Chicago Convention c2e2 is three weeks away April 26-28th at the West Building of McCormick Place. This show is always a great time so come see me at Artist Alley table L6A along with friends, Joe Foo, Mike Roll, Victor Dandridge, Jay Fosgitt, and much more!

One thing I am excited about is this year they are doing an Artist Alley Stage and they asked me to be a part of the line up!

So here's my time for that:

Post: c2e2 2012

Hello!

I am back from my San Diego vacation!  Prior to that, I attended the third c2e2 at Chicago's McCormick Place.  It was a blast!  I definitely had a little pep in my step because I was well into my Kickstarter campaign for Heart.  It was also the debut of Playing with the Alphabet, my flashcards about games and activities to do when you are little.

We started out the day pretty earlier and it gave us time to walk around and scope out the lay out of the show.  As the show opened, Joe Foo and Mike Roll were all set up and the self proclaimed Almost Asian Tour was ready to roll!

Friday was slower than previous years but the traffic came mid afternoon.  I was doing my best to promote Heart and luckily Nicole was there to pick up my slack.  She was such a huge trooper and I really couldn't have done it without her. 

Saturday was the heavy traffic day.  I saw a lot of regulars and met a lot of new people also.  Every book, sketch, or card set sold, I made sure to include the Heart promo card.  Also a lot of family and friends came out on Saturday to support me and that is always such a warm welcome.  A big shout out to Rene and Dave of Instant Press Comics and Victor from Vantage In:House who were kind enough to have some of those promo cards at their tables.  When I had caught up with my sketch work Nic and I would frequent Artist Alley and scope out some of the more interesting tables.  I also made a point to visit some creative colleagues that I am continuing to grow friendships with. 

Afterwards Nic and I treated my table mates to a really late dinner at Jerry's.  We waited a LONG time for our food but it made for good conversation and some hilarious stories by the great Joe Foo.  Afterwards we hit up some even later karaoke at this speakeasy club called Brando's.  Joe got me to sing Tenacious D's Wonderboy and we went boy band and belted  98 Degrees' Tell Me Why to a bachelorette party.  It was insanely fun and one of the best nights I've had in a long while.

Sunday was kid's day. Not much of a big crowd than the last two days.  It made sense, but there were definitely a lot more families in attendance.  It was also a big day as the Heart cards and word of mouth kicked the campaign into over drive.  We made a big jump in those two days and we broke 2.5k!  I also did an interview with the amazing Lora Innes for her Paper Wings Podcast show which she co-hosts with the also amazing Chris Oatley.  It was definitely one of the highlights of the show for me and really pumped me up to finish Sunday strong.

And I felt like I did.  By the end of the week I had mad a 50% jump in my goal and by Tuesday night I had achieved it!

This year's c2e2 was definitely an education in networking.  Not only did I become more comfortable speaking to strangers and pitching my story, I grew confident and positive in my way of thinking.  After Saturday it wasn't I MIGHT make my goal it was more like I WILL make my goal.  When that was instilled, that passion for the project started to come out more when I was speaking.  It definitely shows in the art but it started to show in my speech.  I was more expressive and I engaged in conversation more, not only with people stopping at the table but with my convention friends as well. The experience is something I will carry with me forever.  Not because I got people to donate to my book but because the passion for wanting to be in this industry burned brighter than ever.  There's no reason it should go out.

Packaging the Alphabet and preppin' for c2e2!

Hi all,

We are getting ready for the big c2e2 Convention this Friday-Sunday at McCormick Place.  I will be at table E5 with Joe Foo and Mike Roll and I will have a lot of new stuff on hand!

 Today I received the first set of Playing The Alphabet,  my flashcards devoted to playing games and having fun.  I was happy to this massive heavy package waiting for me downstairs and when I cracked it open I had the biggest smile on my face.  Something the stress of preparing for this month had taken away. It all paid off as the cards came nicely glossed on a rich card stock.  The images are pretty vibrant and colorful and emulated everything I wanted in my own version of the alphabet.

I also ordered some boxes with clear tops to display them  in.  I was nervous at first that they weren't going to fit.  I was thinking they were too big or that the box might be too small. Luckily, they worked out great with enough room for kids to reach in and take out.

So tonight, Nic and I have been counting prints, packing the cards, and doing book counts.  It's been a productive evening but still SUPER SUPER fun because I have no product for the show and the rest of the season and it turned out great.  Check'em out.

A big thanks to Greko Printer and Mike Roll who also helped print my Coloring books last year.  They were efficient, affordable, and even packed the cards with rubber bands to keep'em safe.  I would recommend for all your print needs for sure.  They do great work.

Here's the final product shot you will see at my table:

Hope to see you at the show this weekend! Remember, Table E5!

Come play the alphabet!

Hi all,

It's been a bit quiet on this side after DanCon 2012.  I'm not slacking that's for sure, I've been busy working on a multitude of projects.

Can I take the time to say that I have a Kickstarter going for my new book, Heart.  I think you should all check it out, donate and pass it along!  I have a widget that I added to the right that show's the campaign's progress and sure do hope you click on over once you've read this post.

Ok, I am happy to announce the newest edition to the WIWL family:

That's right, WIWL is tackling the alphabet.  After I released a successful Coloring book, I wanted to keep helping kids learn in a fun way.  I thought about what else I could put a WIWL stamp on and I came up with an alphabet book.  I was going to call it The little Alphabet Book.  It was going to focus on little things, objects, animals, etc.  Even the letters were going to be kept at lowercase.  A book where they can flip through and learn their letters.  It was also going to be the first book that wasn't named like the other books.

I thought about it some more. After doing four books I wanted to keep going in that direction of having the kids interact with whatever I put out.  I wanted something fresh.  So I scratched the book idea and decided to do them as flashcards.  That way kids can learn the order of the alphabet too.  Parents can shuffle the cards around and ask them to put it in the correct order.  Now when I did research, I noticed that some of the alphabet sets were pretty random.  I like to have themes for my projects, like the coloring book was focused on sports, events, seasons, and holidays.

When I was thinking of the project as a book I noticed some of the little things I picked were toys and games.  I eventually decided on the idea of things you can play as the theme for these flashcards.  The only things I kept from  the initial idea were it was going to be lower case focused and the name was not going to precede the original title, When I Was Little.  The name Playing the Alphabet came much later...actually I think it was during one of Nicole and I's brainstorm conversations at the end of Dan Con last month.


So the way the cards are going to be shown are like this:

The front is designed with the letter and an image showing the letter being "played":

The back shows what it is, so k is for kazoo.  Here are some more samples of fronts, I tried to keep it a good mix of boys, girls, and everyone activities.

I had a lot of fun creating these and hope that the kids will have fun with the cards.  My plan is to have some sets available for the upcoming c2e2 show in Chicago.  The cards will be 5 1/2" x 7 1/2" and come in a clear case.

Hope to see you there!

Questions, Anwers, and Interviews

Hi all,

On Wednesday April 20th I was delighted to answer questions via Skype with the 2nd graders of Lincoln/McKinley elementary school. A friend of mine works there and heard that the Art and Technology teacher has these Skype meet and greets and were looking for an illustrator. She got in contact with me and we set a date for me to talk to her class.

I was amazed at how much they loved the series. There were a lot of great questions asking me about my background in art and where did the idea for the series come from. They were so inspired that their art project for this year is to create their own When I Was Little pages which they will collect into a book and show to their fellow classmates and parents! How exciting and amazing is that?! I will be keeping in touch with Ms. Punke and her 2nd Grade class' progress on their own When I Was Little.


In other news, I was interviewed for ESCapism at c2e2 about my career in art and my children's books. They wrote up a very nice piece and posted the video interview just recently. So click on the image to check it out!

Post c2e2

Hello all,

I've been away from the desk a bit after the dust has settled from what was a terrific start to the convention season for me.

The show was bigger and better in every way in terms of Artist Alley, vendors, guests, panels, and layout of the show floor.


I wish I could haven taken more advantage of that but in a good way, I was at my table for most of the show. I shared my table this year with Mike Roll, whom I went to Detroit Fanfare with last year. We plan on going to SPX and plans are in the works of returning to Fanfare in September!


Sitting on my left side I met the great Cary Kelley, author of Fallen Justice and the DynaGirl web comic. This guy was my savior when it came to odd sketch requests. He busted out his ipad with me and talked good ole' Austin Texas BBQ with Nicole. He is probably THE nicest table neighbor I have ever had at a con. The man knows EVERYTHING about EVERY CHARACTER in the comic book universe.

Friday night Nic and I had dinner with some new friends I met last year at Mid Ohio Con. We went to Jerry's Sandwiches. Where I had the best burger ever, the Crab Cake Burger.



Saturday day was busy day. It was also family and friends day as some came out to support me. I also re-met a few people who contributed to When You Were Little and stopped by my table to check out the book. It was great reconnecting with them and having a few moments admist my busy sketch-dule (hehe) for the day.





Sunday was kid's day and also Nicole was attending my niece's baptism so I was on my own. It was a bit nerve racking trying to take sketch requests, handle book sales, and draw at the same time but Cary and Mike were real helpful in watching my table during bathroom breaks. A lot of kids and parents responded to the new prints...it seems the Green Lantern from last year and the Captain America and Catwoman were the cutest of the bunch.

c2e2 was quite the experience and I look forward to the how the rest of the convention season turns out. Keep an eye on the blog, twitter, and facebook, as I'll eventually be adding more show dates and book festivals as they come to me.

Thanks all for the support and please stay tuned for what's in store in the When I Was Little series!

Here's some select sketches from c2e2 that I thought you'd enjoy:

c2e2 2011

Just a reminder that I'll be at the c2e2 convention this weekend at Chicago's McCormick Place. I'll be sharing a table with Mike Roll in Artist Alley, table i5. Come check us out! Here's another look at some of the new prints I'll have for the show.